Poll of The Week: The Dip - have you survived?

Poll

Were you able to overcome problems and doubts that you faced in your first semester?

Your first year at uni? Felt happy at first, but feeling unhappy and wanting to leave now? Or has this happened to you in the past? Share your experiences here!

You may have had a talk about this at the start about what I dub ‘The Dip’. Everything may feel fine during the first few weeks when you suddenly start to doubt yourself, wonder whether you’d be better off at another uni or studying another subject. Or you suddenly feel very homesick and want to visit and never come back to uni, or you just don’t enjoy it.

This thread is for people to share their experiences, how they felt or feel now and what decisions they’ve made.

Here’s my story:

Spoiler

So..what kind of things should you do?

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Remind yourself of why you’ve picked your uni/course/subject. Hopefully this will motivate you. If these things are no longer true, then maybe it’s time to start thinking about perhaps a similar or different course at your uni, or maybe another one, but don’t rush any decisions!

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Have something to keep you busy. Whether it’s revision, coursework, something society related, sport or volunteering, something to give you a sense of progress.

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Enjoy time with your friends from your course, or your flatmates, or the things mentioned above. I appreciate that it’s often difficult to find ‘good’ friends at uni that you can really connect with and you find that you’ve only made some friends/acquaintances and this could be the root of why you may feel unhappy.

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Don’t make any hasty decisions, but don’t just ignore things either. If things really don’t seem to be getting better then maybe there is an issue that needs fixing. You can speak to your personal tutor for advice or use wellbeing services at your university.Fire away!